Divine Stories

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“These stories are to the Buddhist tradition what the Arabian Nights is to the Arabic, an ocean of stories from which Buddhist storytellers and artists throughout Asia drew their inspiration. The translation—precise, elegant, vernacular—flows clear as water in a mountain stream.”
—Wendy Doniger, Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions, University of Chicago

DIVINE STORIES

Divyāvadāna Part 1

Andy Rotman

Divine Stories is the inaugural volume in the Classics of Indian Buddhism series. The stories here, among the first texts to be inscribed by Buddhists, highlight the moral economy of karma, illustrating how gestures of faith, especially offerings, can bring the reward of future happiness and ultimate liberation. Originally contained in the Divyāvadāna, an enormous compendium of Sanskrit Buddhist narratives from the early Common Era, the stories in this collection express the moral and ethical impulses of Indian Buddhist thought and are a testament to the historical and social power of narrative. Long believed by followers to be the actual words of the Buddha himself, these divine stories are without a doubt some of the most influential stories in the history of Buddhism.

book information
  • Paperback
  • 528 pages, 6.00 x 9.00 inches
  • $24.95
  • ISBN 9780861712953
  • ebook
  • 528 pages
  • $18.99
  • ISBN 9780861718313
about the author
Divine Stories

Andy Rotman is a professor in the Religion Department and Buddhist Studies program at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. He received his PhD in South Asian languages and civilizations from the University of Chicago in 2003. His research concerns the ways in which narratives and images in South Asia function as a part of social history and material culture. He is the translator of the inaugural volume in Wisdom’s Classics of Indian Buddhism series, Divine Stories: Divyāvadāna Part 1, and of Divine Stories: Divyāvadāna Part 2.

Other books by Andy Rotman:
Hungry Ghosts
Divine Stories

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